


Where we’ve been

by Artemis_Crimson



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Cassandra de Rolo Needs a Hug, Gen, Gore, Pre-Canon, it's mild I think but I'm not sure how my standards apply sooo yeah, oh hey that's a major tag yep good
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-02
Updated: 2018-11-02
Packaged: 2019-08-16 18:08:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16500209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Artemis_Crimson/pseuds/Artemis_Crimson
Summary: In which she wishes she'd been a little stronger, a little faster or even just a little weaker





	Where we’ve been

Here’s the thing about De Rolo’s; they’re deceptively sturdy. Whitestone is beautiful but rather cruel and they’ve been here even before sunlight and innovation helped calm the land (and isn’t that frightening, that dragonfire and undeath and strange magic eating away underfoot is the calm?).  
De Rolo’s are sturdy, a legacy older than this kingdom, this country. Their is past carried by every one of them, never thinning the load but adding to it instead. A history is not diminished for having spread.  
De Rolo’s are sturdy and sometimes they don’t know how deeply that runs.

So while that last arrow, which embedded itself deep in Cassandra’s throat, feathers caught in her hair and razorhead digging into the ground would have killed any lesser person; anyone else her age would have been dropped by the two sticking out of her back Cassandra is made of sterner stuff.  
An arrow through her neck, chipping at her spine and blood pouring down her throat is just enough to stop her, to trip her up and give the break to her brother who runs less like a human and more like a hunted beast.

Briarwoods are deceptively strong too, with a younger power all the more potent, a might that topples monarchies. It’s a power never as rare or as common as people would expect or like though (which of the two people favour depends very much on their current circumstance and is always subject to change). Really it's a power unwanted but the Briarwoods admittedly bear it well.  
The new Lord and Lady will have their whole lives for a legacy, beyond their name which Cassandra is certain they at least find very impressive.  
The faster one makes it to her side first, the walking one soon after, both stop to look down at the last daughter of Whitestone in the early dawn, dirty and only half dead.

Cassandra stares unblinkingly back at vampires and liches, reminding herself she holds something older than any of them will ever amount to, she does her best to look down at them while prone at their feet. De Rolo’s are deceptively sturdy. She’s had a legacy to live up to since before she was born. And her brother, her last brother had been badly hit too but he kept running towards the river, he’s probably dead too now like all the others. If not he'd be lucky to make it to the next day. It's just Cassandra left.  
Whitestone is heavy but it’s her birthright now.  
So Cassandra glares with that De Rolo fortitude, glares up with all the stubborn wrath and tired half-life she can muster at the monsters who are stealing her home. She hates them with every inch of her name. She’s dying too after all, and even if it can’t be on her feet, she’ll be damned if she doesn’t pull every last shred of dignity and power left to impress upon these, these _interlopers_ that they’d made a grave mistake.  
It did impress them and that’s exactly when she lost.

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by this one fic on tumblr forever ago but I can't find it so if ya'll know about this one where Cass is plagued by her duty and feels older than she is then hmu


End file.
